To be strange
by mokamon
Summary: The people of Iselia always thought he was different - strange. She likes him like that, though.


Garblegarblegarblegggggghh... Hit a major writer's block for the seventh chapter of Journey and I'm kind of 'grr wtf, write you lazy cow,' about it. So, maybe writing about something from Colette's p.o.v. will help...? Fack, I dunno what I'm doing...

I CAN'T WAIT FOR SUNDAY.

I'm leaving for a week long trip to Toronto (OMG) for a school exchange with my school's music department (loads of awesome people in that). I won't be back until the 23 so I'm freaking stoked. .

Another note for you; I got myself a tumblr account for those of you who care. The url is on my bio so if you want, go take a look at it~ You can also ask me any questions there if you want. Hurrg, shameless self advertising?

I THINK SO.

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><p>There he was.<p>

Day after day, week after week, month after month, wandering the streets.

He wasn't causing any trouble, no, never him. She didn't think he was actually capable of causing trouble. In fact, he was usually the one who would try - and more often than not would - to stop trouble in the small town of five hundred thirty-six and a half people (Liam or Lana (Jane and Wilmer Hester, the newly wed twenty-two year olds who were married August twenty-third of last year, weren't sure what gender the baby was going to be) would be here soon). Fights would occur between children, sometimes adults, and he'd find a way to step in and solve it. Peacefully, of course. He couldn't stand seeing neighbours and friends arguing for no particular reason; even if there was a reason for an argument, he didn't like it. She didn't either (of course she didn't, she was the Chosen after all), but people usually stopped bickering when she walked by, asking her questions and wishing her luck until she left the immediate area. After she was 'gone', they'd go back to being angry with each other...

He'd always try to help others before they awkwardly turned him, the outsider, down on his offer. The old woman down the street (Helena Mokena, seventy-three years old, whose favorite fruit was pears with ketchup) always yelled at him when he tried to help her get around town.

_"You think I'm too old to walk?"_ _she yelled, obviously offended._

_"Of course not!" he replied, shaking his hands back and forth. "__I just thought you'd like some help!"  
><em>  
>It was a weekly thing that the two did. Sometimes, it seemed as though they did it just for the fun of it, for each others company. In the end, he often ended up following the senior around town, playfully bickering and laughing with her, listening to stories of when she was growing up.<p>

You'd often see him going into the small foods shop (that was owned by the single man Adam Cloture, age forty-five, she thought he was a kind quiet man, even if others didn't), and coming out with bags and bags and bags of food. He would never be in there very long, no more then ten minutes; it normally takes a person, with two people in the house, to find the appropriate foods twenty minutes, doesn't it? It usually took her father forty minutes just to get back home! Then again...he may have been side tracked by all the villagers asking him how she was... If you were close enough to the boy when he came out of the store, though, you could try and sneak a peak at the foods he had bought with his 'father's' gald. Foods that looked as if he just randomly grabbed them from the shelves - never tomatoes, though - not even seeming to care that the foods would never make a decent tasting meal. When you bothered him about the foods he had bought, he'd go on and on about 'Dwarven Potluck Surprise'. To be honest, it was a personal favorite of hers too; she was tired of all the fancy foods her grandmother always had her eat.

The weapons shop owners (Alana and Kaiden Borosies, ages thirty-four and thirty-seven, along with their two children Poppy, age six and Fletcher, age thirteen) knew him by name after about the first week of him coming to the village. The first day that old, rough dwarf brought him to the village was a bit of a surprise for everyone; the dwarf was lovable? One of the first few stops they made was the weapons shop - the dwarf needed new tools for his work. The pair didn't come out for at least two hours. When they finally came out, the boy - who was only five at the time - was bounding up and down, asking his 'father' if he could have those amazing swords in the shop if he was extra good. He'd even eat those yucky tomatoes, for the rest of his life, if he had to! As long as he got those swords!

She'd always wondered why he was so attached to swords. She asked him about it, and he just told her, _'They...remind me of my father... My real father...'_

She didn't bother him about his infatuation with swords very much after that. Although, she was very happy to see a smile on his face whenever he had those swords with him.

The children that would speak to him, the younger ones of course, loved to see his blades; he loved to show them. He wasn't meaning to show off - she had to admit, he wasn't very skilled with them for the longest time, anyways - he just wanted to show the children what he could do.

He would slash and thrust at the invisible enemies, shouting out daring taunts to the monsters. He'd toss the swords in the air and make them spin, before carefully catching the handle again and throwing the blade into its sheath, all with precise, delicate timing. Of course, he had only started doing that lately since he was more practiced at it.

Some days he'd take volunteers from the audience - sometimes even herself – to help enhance the play, making them a companion, a villain, or a person to save. They'd spend all day just watching the boy use his swords, all the children oohing and ahhing away at his amazing...'skills'.

Parents, on the other hand, weren't too fond of his swords. Why did the mayor allow him - why did _they _allow him? - to walk around the village with swords, strapped to his waist? How were swords going to teach their children good things?

Swords meant _danger_, danger meant _violence_, violence meant _war_, war meant _rebellions_, rebellions meant _anarchy_, and anarchy meant _chaos_.

Sure, he was a good kid, never got into any trouble - as she had mentioned before, she didn't think he was physically capable of causing any - he usually did what he was told, and he was always happy to help. But those swords were just...so dangerous to the parents...

It also irked parents how (oh, what was the more polite term for his situation?) not-very-good-at-school he seemed to be. He was never doing well in school, always staying behind after school hours for sleeping - sleeping! - during classes (how could he be so disrespectful to the teacher! And an elven teacher, too! How? _How_?). He failed the simplest tests, never understood the most fundamental lessons and was always - always, she couldn't think of a day when he wasn't - late for classes. The people of the small town prided themselves on being orderly and having things done on in a timely manner.

Then that boy came and threw every thing off balance.

It was doing no one's child any good being around that boy, and most parents knew it.

The guards (Casey Hurren, age thirty-two who was married to Katrina Hurren, age thirty-two, was the older, more experienced guard. Eric Tigby, age twenty-four was just a trainee, but he was engaged to Lizzy Jordan, age twenty-three.) weren't pleased with his...'dog' - if that's what it really was - always trying to come into the village. The 'dog' would often carry the boy to the village through the forest, the animals ears perked up and twitching every so often. The animal would never go back into the forest after he had dropped the boy off at the village, he would always wait just outside the village gate until the boy got back.

Some days, when there was a storm coming or if, for some reason, the monsters in the forest and field were restless, the boy's dog would try to come into the village, whining for him. The poor animal was scared! He just wanted to see his young master! Yet, even though the animal wasn't violent - she had climbed him many times, no doubt pulling fur from his body, yet he never so much as glared at her - he was rather...intimidating to the people. How could a dog be the size of a horse and green and white, and have such large ears and such a large mouth and such large eyes? (Yes, there were many jokes about how the dog's physical attributes were to hear, eat, see and smell others, but it was really all fun and games.) The parents, as well as the older children, were not happy seeing that...monster - that was the word whispered around town when the boy wasn't around - was seen. It was a bad sign, yet another sign of rebellion.

_"Why is he so strange?" that was a common question she heard, from on parent to another, as she walked around town. "It doesn't make any sense. I thought this was supposed to be a peaceful, holy village? Why are we letting this boy in the village when he could be a threat to the Chosen?_

_"He lives with a dwarf," is the reply from the other concerned parent, holding their child closely as the boy walked by. "What do you expect from a boy who hasn't be raised properly? I don't understand it either. We should keep a closer eye on him...living so near the ranch mustn't be good for the boy in the first place."_

_"I'm not that worried about him," the first parent (she didn't want to name him at this point, although she knew that Jackson needed to pick up Tia from Lisa's house soon) replied when the boy wasn't in ear shot. "I'm just worried over how him being here will affect the Chosen..."_

A small, unnoticeable frown formed on her face as she thought of what she had heard the other day. She didn't understand. What was wrong with her best friend being a little different?

He ate foods all mixed together, and refused to eat tomatoes. For some reason this was strange.

She ate meals for the rich, and didn't like green peppers. Yet not one person thought that was odd.

He fought with two swords because they reminded him of his long lost father. This was seen as dangerous, a rebellious act.

She also fought with two weapons, chakrams. Not because she wanted to (she'd rather not fight in the first place) but because the church said she should. Everyone thought she was such a caring Chosen for not having harmful weapons.

He wasn't good in school (although, he knew his stars amazingly well). This made him a terrible student; parents didn't want their children to play with him in case he rubbed off on them.

She knew the world's history, everything about Martel and the church. Children always flocked around her to learn about the holy Goddess; their parents told them they need to know.

The boy had a strange animal that wasn't anything close to what he said it was supposed to be, yet he blindly insisted that was its species. Villagers thought it was dangerous, an omen.

The Chosen on the other hand, had never had a pet in her life, just the flowers outside her home. Villagers thought it was wonderful how well she took care of them (even if it wasn't really her who did, she didn't really know how to take care of flowers in the first place).

Her best friend was able to leave the village whenever he wanted. He was able to travel, able to fight, able to see the world. He ate foods that his father made him because they both liked to eat those foods. He was allowed weapons that were special to him. He was allowed to have a pet that loved him.

He was able to live his life the way he wanted.

Her on the other hand? She couldn't leave the village unless she was going to the temple, with armed guards of course. She was only going to travel for the regeneration journey - she wouldn't even be coming back after that. She used weapons that she was forced to use (she didn't like them; they dug into her hands too much). She was given meals the church wanted her father (who villagers always whispered wasn't her real father) to make for her. She wasn't allowed to have a pet, since that would distract her from her journey.

She was barely even allowed to live past sixteen years old.

If anyone was strange, it was her.

Maybe Lloyd was a bit more than abnormal. That was okay with Colette, though. She liked things that were different, things that weren't part of a normal everyday life. And the little town of Iselia was full of different things whenever Lloyd came.

Being strange wasn't as bad as the parents around town made it seem.

Besides, when Lloyd was strange...

"Hey! Colette!" Lloyd called up to her bedroom window from outside. "Genis's going to make a bomb under water with his magic, wanna come see it?"

Colette didn't feel _as _strange.

"Of course!"

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><p>I think I just butchered Colette.<p>

Fack.


End file.
